The press note from Karnataka Small Scale Industries Ltd (KASSIA), says that the Central budget presented by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, in a way, portrays the massive scale of efforts needed to impart the necessary confidence and thrust for the revival of the economy. The budget rightly attempts to deal with a number of things that need to be addressed in order to push up the growth rate in the economy which is worryingly down to 4.5% in the current year.

KASSIA would like to particularly welcome the measures aimed at giving a boost to the MSMEs such as invoice financing by NBFCs, enhancement of working capital through of subordinate debt, infusion of additional funds to CGTMSE, creation of App-based bill discounting facility, exemption from compulsory audit up to a turnover of Rs. 5 crores etc., among others.

We hope that added to the general measures proposed to revive the economy, such as creation of the investment clearance cell, higher insurance cover for exports, reversion of duties and taxes on export products along with the special focus on Electronic and semiconductor equipment manufacturing value chains, these will help provide the necessary stimulus needed to revive the economic growth in the Country. The problems facing the Indian economy now require measures to put back on track growth in investment and consumption, which seem to be missing. We believe this is the central issue for the economy to help employment and incomes.

Some problems also revolve around the payment issues still faced by MSMEs in spite of the various steps taken to address the mismatch between their receipts and payments.

KASSIA welcomes the proposals for simplifying GST filing of returns and the measures to help the rural economy by directing investments to agriculture and related areas. So also the rationalization of direct taxes, particularly income tax, and the increase in insurance cover for bank deposits. KASSIA would like to commend the Finance Minister for the measures to help start ups and the proposed funding towards the Bangalore suburban rail project which is extremely important for the infrastructure development of the IT City. Ultimately, everything will hinge on implementation as budget measures generally have a short shelf-life and need to be effectively followed through and executed in a federal set up as ours.